No. 1 Eagles Host UMass Lowell Wednesday in Hockey East Semifinal

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – No. 1 seed and top-ranked Boston College hosts No. 7 seed UMass Lowell on Wednesday (March 17) in the Hockey East Semifinal at Kelley Rink with faceoff at 4:30 p.m. on NESN. The game will also air on SportsLive with no restrictions in New England. Radio coverage on WEEI 850 AM and BCEagles.com starts at 4:15 p.m.

The Eagles have won six of their last seven games and enter the matchup at 17-4-1 overall with home ice advantage throughout the 36th Hockey East Tournament. Lowell upset 2-seed Boston University 2-1 on Sunday at Walter Brown Arena in the quarters. BC swept a home-and-home series from the River Hawks, 5-1 and 4-3, in mid-February.

WE MEET AGAIN
• Boston College is 5-2-1 in eight all-time playoff matchups with UMass Lowell (the lone tie came in the consolation game of the 1997 tournament)
• The Eagles are 3-0 against Lowell in the semifinal round with wins in 1985, 1986 and 2001
• UMass Lowell won the only championship matchup between the schools in 2017
• That 2017 title game is the only playoff meeting beween BC and UML in the last 20 years
• Boston College is 18-7 all-time in its 25 appearances in the Hockey East Semifinal

ON TO THE SEMIS
• Boston College held off a comeback attempt from New Hampshire on Sunday to secure a 3-2 victory over the ninth-seeded Wildcats in the Hockey East Quarterfinal at Kelley Rink
• The Eagles stormed out to a 3-0 first period lead, scoring three times in less than three minutes from Alex Newhook, Mike Hardman and Nikita Nesterenko
• UNH battled back with a pair of goals in the second period, but Spencer Knight helped clinch the win with 13 saves in the final frame and 35 total stops in his first career playoff start
• Sunday marked the sixth straight meeting between the schools to be decided by a goal or less
• BC improved to 45-19-1 all-time in the Hockey East Quarterfinals and has now won eight of its last nine quarterfinal games

SCOUTING THE RIVER HAWKS
• UMass Lowell enters the semifinal at 9-8-1 overall following playoff victories over No. 10 seed Vermont and No. 2 seed Boston University
• Sophomore Andre Lee and junior Reid Stefanson are tied for the team lead in points with 14 apiece on the season
• Sophomore Matt Brown leads the River Hawks with seven goals
• In net, freshman Henry Welsch (9 GS, 5-4-0, 2.57 GAA, .898 SV%) and junior Owen Savory (7 GS, 4-3-1, 3.35, .846) have split time
• Both netminders have started a playoff game thus far
• UML is clicking at 19.7% on the power play but just 77.3% on the penalty kill

THIS YEAR'S SERIES
• BC swept a home-and-home series against UMass Lowell in mid-February
• Led by six goals and six assists from its sophomore class, the Eagles cruised to a 7-1 Hockey East victory over Lowell on Feb. 12 at Kelley Rink
• It was the Eagles' largest margin of victory in the series against Lowell since a 6-0 home shutout nearly 15 years prior on Feb. 23, 2006
• Linemates Matt Boldy, Alex Newhook and Mike Hardman combined for 11 points, led by Boldy with a career-high five-point performance (1-4-5)
• The following night at Tsongas Center, Boston College trailed 2-0 at the first intermission but scored a pair of 4-on-4 goals in the span of 1:17 in the second
• Drew Helleson and Jack McBain each had a goal and two assists, while Nikita Nesterenko scored the go-ahead goal nine seconds into the third period
• Helleson's three points were a career-best and the sophomore was +4 in the victory, finishing the weekend with four points

SERIES HISTORY
• Boston College has a 68-44-10 advantage over UMass Lowell in the all-time series heading into the 123rd meeting between the schools on Wednesday
• In 26 meetings since Norm Bazin arrived as head coach in Lowell, he and Jerry York are dead even at 11-11-4 head-to-head
• The Eagles are just 4-7-1 in their last 12 games against the River Hawks but are 4-3-1 in the last eight meetings in Chestnut Hill
• The schools split their two meetings last year, each pulling out a 3-2 victory on the other's home ice in January and February

THE TOP SEED
• Boston College has earned the No. 1 seed entering the Hockey East Tournament for the seventh time in the last 11 years (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021)
• BC has won 11 Hockey East Tournament titles, the last coming in 2012 as the 1-seed
• In the history of the Hockey East Tournament, No. 1 seeds have advanced to the semifinals 31 times (including this year), reached the title game 23 times, and won 17 titles
• However in the last five years, only six of the 24 No. 1 seeds (25%) across college hockey's six conference tournaments have gone on to win their tournament titles

NICE ONE NIKITA
• Nikita Nesterenko had the game-winning goal in his playoff debut on Sunday and was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week on Monday
• Nesterenko ranks ninth nationally in scoring among freshmen with 19 points in 22 games
• He is a finalist for the Hockey East Rookie of the Year award

YORK IN THE TOURNEY
• Jerry York has the most wins all-time in the Hockey East Tournament with 64, pulling ahead of Jack Parker (62) with BC's upset of No. 1 seed UMass in the 2019 Semifinal
• York is 64-23-1 (.733) in 88 career Hockey East Tournament games and has won nine league championships during his tenure at Boston College
• With a 4-2 win at UConn on Jan. 23, he reached 1,100 career victories in his Division I career

DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
• BC owns the second-lowest GAA in Hockey East and the 12th-lowest in the NCAA (2.18)
• BC's penalty kill finished the regular season ranked second in the league and now sits eighth in the country, going 21-for-22 on the kill over the last seven games
• After leading the nation with 11 shorthanded goals last season, the Eagles once again lead the country with eight shorthanded goals this year in 22 games
• Marc McLaughlin and Matt Boldy share the national lead with three shorties each

No. 1 Eagles Host UMass Lowell Wednesday in Hockey East Semifinal

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Players Mentioned

Matt Boldy

Mike Hardman

Drew Helleson

Spencer Knight

Jack McBain

Marc McLaughlin

Nikita Nesterenko

Alex Newhook